Integrating Macroeconomics into the EU Single Legal Order: The Role of Financial Stability in Post-Crisis Europe

in European Papers (2022), Vol. 6(3 /2021), 1367-1396

This article follows the trajectory of the EU legal order, from its inception to its current stage, by focusing on the transformations it has experienced resulting from its increasing interaction with ... [more ▼]

This article follows the trajectory of the EU legal order, from its inception to its current stage, by focusing on the transformations it has experienced resulting from its increasing interaction with macroeconomics. When the Court of Justice declared that a new legal order resulted from the provisions of the Treaty of Rome, its interpretation stemmed from a coherent understanding of the institutional form (indirect administration) and substantive content (microeconomic integra-tion) of European integration. The addition of the macroeconomic layer of integration, with its own institutional form (integrated administration and open method of coordination) but still broadly subject to the same legal order, resulted into a less consistent whole. The crises the Union faced during the last decade tested the resistance of these structures and, although the Court has been consistently interpreting EU law according to the same procedures and tech-niques without radical deviations, the irruption of financial stability as macroeconomic impera-tive has rearranged the equilibrium in integration. Now we can argue that institutional form, substantive content and legal order of European integration are again realigned, but instead of resulting from the provisions of the Treaties and from placing the legal rationality of law at the core of the system, financial stability is the rationale coherently arranging them together. The consequences of this rearrangement for the EU legal order are the object of study of this spe-cial issue. [less ▲]

Le droit au regroupement familial des réfugiés mineurs non accompagnés devenus majeurs: l’affaire A et S, entre progrès incontestable et portée relative

in European Papers (2018)

In its decision A and S (judgment of 12 April 2018, case C-550/16, A et S v. Staatssecretaris van Veiligheid en Justitie), the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled – for the first time – on the ... [more ▼]

In its decision A and S (judgment of 12 April 2018, case C-550/16, A et S v. Staatssecretaris van Veiligheid en Justitie), the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled – for the first time – on the relevant date for assessing the minority of an unaccompanied minor who reaches the age of majority in the course of their application for international protection. In this case, a young refugee had introduced an application for international protection while she was still minor of age but subsequently attained the age of majority during the procedure. In accordance with Art. 10, para. 3, let. a), of directive 2003/86 on the right to family reunification, she then applied for temporary residence permits for her relatives in the direct ascending line for the purposes of family reunification. Although she was granted asylum and thus fell within the scope of chapter V of directive 2003/86 laying down more favourable conditions for the family reunification of refugees, the directive was silent on whether she could have benefited from such conditions retroactively. Following its AG in this case, the Court avoided a formalistic interpretation and rather opted for a teleological approach of the more protective provisions of directive 2003/86. By doing so, it allowed their retroactive application to the young refugee and her parents. Through its interpretation, the Court restated its firm intention to protect the best interests of children – including third-country nationals – in the context of family reunification. Although it shows a definitely protective approach, the concrete impact of this decision appears to be somewhat limited in scope. [less ▲]

The Pragmatism of the Court of Justice on the Detention of IrregularMigrants: Comment on Affum

in European Papers (2017)